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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

We are very excited to announce that today is the official release date of Beginnings, Middles, & Ends: Sideways Stories on the Art & Soul of Social Work, by Ogden W. Rogers!

This book of fun, funny, insightful, wise, and--yes--educational stories will make a great gift for any social worker or social work student. Terry L. Singer, Ph.D., said, "This read is a gift to all, whether they are
starting or ending their journey of service to others.”

Author Ogden Rogers calls the book a mixture between "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Social Work Universe" and "Everything I Needed To Learn I Learned in Social Work School."

To celebrate the book's release, the publisher is offering a 15% discount now through October 22, 2013. Go to the White Hat Communications store and use coupon code LAUNCH15 to receive 15% off this book (and other social work books, too).

Beginnings, Middles, & Ends is also available at Amazon.com in print and Kindle formats.

Additionally, it is available in ebook format at the Google Play Store.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Beginnings, Middles, & Ends: Sideways Stories on the Art & Soul of Social Work has received another great review! Published on October 7, the review and interview appears on the Social Justice Solutions site.

Reviewer Victoria Brewster captured the essence of the book in her review and interview of both the author and the publisher. She says:

"Seasoned or more experienced social workers will be nodding their heads
and smiling while remembering their own beginnings in the field. Social
work students will see the book as a wonderful learning opportunity and
get an idea of what lies ahead and those relatively new to the
profession will ‘see’ or ‘be’ a mixture of the two"

She asked author Ogden Rogers to summarize his book. His response:

"I like to say the book is sort of like 'The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to
the Social Work Universe' meets 'Everything I needed to learn I learned
in Social Work School'… The book is a collection of 99 stories, some of
them quite short (I call them 'potato chips') that reflect beginnings,
middles, and ends- mostly about social work relationships.... The idea is that
there might be something in any story to think, feel, or resonate with
the reader."

"Simply put, I loved it...in
the early to mid-90s...that’s when I 'discovered' the brilliance of
his writing. I first published one of his pieces in 1995 [in The New
Social Worker]. This book...is
very real—he’s willing to write about mistakes he made along the way and
how he learned from them, so others can learn from them, too. But he
also uses an artistic story-telling approach to show readers how social
workers can think outside the box to come up with creative ways to find
solutions to problems."

Monday, October 7, 2013

The following is an excerpt from the "Middles" section of Beginnings, Middles, & Ends: Sideways Stories on the Art & Soul of Social Work," by Ogden W. Rogers.

Social work is always about being in the middle. We are always guests in another’s house. The social worker in the hospital is the one who knows most about outside of the hospital. The health care worker on the street is the person who knows most about getting into the hospital. The genius of the social worker is that she or he is always between things. The master of the art appreciates the muddle that is life and demands a profession that dances down a razor’s edge. The worker who has “it” is the worker who knows that between me and thee is a fuzzy ball, a place where you invite “the other” to come in. To place hands upon the keys and make music. A place to cast off the cast iron of failed expectation and work in the muddle of the moment. What will emerge is anyone’s guess, but at least it is not the pain of what once was.

If life were black and white, we’d have no need for social work. Police and lawyers and judges and accountants could solve most of what could be called conflict. But life is really quite a gray thing, and despite the anger that wells in those who rail against gray, who want things black and white, they know they need us.